Princess Chelsea performed her acclaimed album Everything is Going to be Alright, and it was wonderful and cathartic.
The result of a self-imposed healing exile on the favourite retreat island of Waiheke, where Chelsea Nikkel recuperated after a period of mental health crisis.
Chelsea is a polymath. A classically trained pianist, she is a singer, visual artist, bass guitar player, producer and more. She was in the Brunettes for a while with Jonathan Bree, who she collaborates with frequently.
Just a few months ago, those two played with Nile Rodgers to release a fine single called Miss You. That guy happened to be performing yesterday at the Civic Theatre, but I didn’t spot him in the large crowd here tonight.
She has been active for fourteen years in the arts and has achieved breakthrough success in music. That can take its toll psychologically, and the madness of the last three years pushed many to the brink.
This is generally supressed in the mainstream media, along with most of the social destruction.
Many musicians do comment on this with their return to the live platform. The sense is that everyone is still processing the pain and trauma.
In recent times, we have been hearing the artists musical response to this. Some have found renewed inner strength, and we are starting to hear the result. Art can serve an important role in coming to terms with major human crises and finding some sense in it.
The Dada Art Movement originated in Zurich Switzerland in 1916 with the horrors of World War One. It resurfaced again with the Punk explosion of 1976. Dada is slang for shit. I sense there will be more crucial artists who will respond to these extremely fraught times which commenced in 2020.
Princess Chelsea is on the side of bringing the light to those that need to hide their shadow-deed. (Electricity by Captain Beefheart). Many other artists have been mesmerised by the dark forces.
There are definite undercurrents of Beefheart on the title track to Everything is Going to be Alright which opens the show.
Chelsea is theatrical in appearance. Black outfit and make-up, she looks like Betty Boop crossed with Madonna. The stage is too small to go full Kate Bush, but she conveys similar intent.
There is a Kate backing vocalist, who complements her well. There are seven crammed onto the stage which includes a Josh on guitar and Joe Kaptein on keyboards.
The band are tight and loose as appropriate and hit the sweet spots with ease all through the set. They extend on the vamp with the opening song showing their extensive chops. It ends with Chelsea playing the xylophone.
The Forest begins with I feel so funny. Guitars develop a nice Sixties drone, and everyone rages as they come to the boil. There is some of the tone of the Velvet Underground, What Goes On in particular.
Chelsea picks up the bass for Love Is Mine. The bottom is dominant, and the guitar washes over like rolling surf on the Waiheke beaches.
The vocals occasionally get lost in the distortion and subsonic tones.
I Don’t Know You starts with a cute Farfisa organ sound and then Oh baby/ I gotta go, gotta leave. A perfect post Girl Group vocal, the style that David Lynch and Quentin Tarantino are so enamoured with. Dreamy and alluring like sirens.
That is one of the outstanding features of this Taite Music prize-winning album of this year.
In Heaven is art rock so icy and detached that it’s glacial. In heaven everything is fine. Talking Heads earlier Heaven sings about a place where nothing ever happens. Ever. Chelsea’s Girl Group voice edges out David Byrne. Both are songs that make you shiver.
Dream Warrior reaches back a little further with a Fifties aura of twangy guitar and Doo-Wop Of course there is an unsettling edge. A further reference could be Lou Reed and his love of the genre.
Louisa Nicklin opened the evening with an impressive short set of atmospheric and foreboding, Indie inclusive music. That means Pop, Rock and Folk.
She is a stellar guitarist, and the mood tonight was one of some dread. There were Surf licks, chiming Folk riffs but the dominant tone was to get under the skin. Her vocals matched this.
The bass, drums and keyboards, which comprised Eamon, Mason and Durham were locked in and on point.
Nicklin praised Chelsea and called her New Zealand music’s equivalent of Richie McCaw. I took that to mean that she is loose and forward.
Princess Chelsea came back to encore with No Church on Sunday, Monkey Eats Bananas and Loneliest Girl. Pop Art with tremolo guitar. Dance beats with quirky Devo shifts and Booker T and the MGs surfacing too.
The performance reflected some of the turbulence of the times gone by and still to play out. But Chelsea assures us Everything is Going to be Alright.
Rev Orange Peel
Photography by Leonie Moreland
Princess Chelsea
Louisa Nicklin